national surname chiming

Chapter 485 Do everything possible to prevent Tian Koshi from getting smaller
The reform of Zhu Shuren to assist the new monarch was carried out very smoothly, and the time came to the autumn of the second year of Xiaokang in a blink of an eye.

One day in September, Qiantang County, the prefecture of Hangzhou.

Zhang Shipeng, the magistrate of Hangzhou, who is about to expire for three years, welcomed an unexpected visitor in his mansion.

This uninvited guest was Yao Qisheng, who was not even eligible for county-level treatment more than a year ago, but now, he not only has the responsibility of responding to the Tianfu's judgment, but also just a month ago, the regent Zhu Shuren also paid extra. An official was added to him, and he was given the title of member of the household department, Wailang, so that he could go out on business at any time to deal with financial and taxation reform matters.

There are two rapid promotions in a year. If it is not necessary for cruel officials to be villains, they will definitely not be promoted so quickly.

Therefore, when Zhang Shipeng received a private letter from the palace, saying that the prince was going to send Yao Qisheng to Zhejiang to assist him in the tax system reform of abolishing Ding and dividing citizenship, he knew that his side was being paid attention to.

However, since the palace still sent him a private letter so far, it meant that he himself was absolutely not suspected, but only asked him to be cautious in his actions, and Zhang Shipeng had nothing to worry about.

As soon as the two met, Zhang Shipeng also gave each other face: "Mr. Yao, it's a pleasure to meet you. I heard that you have been promoted so quickly that I am really envious of you. This time, I have to ask for advice so that I can serve the court better. , to share worries for the prince."

Yao Qisheng knew that the opponent's foundation was also strong, and his family had been Zhu Shuren's staunch allies in the early years, so he didn't dare to make too much of a big deal, and he put himself in a very low position in his words.

This Zhang Shipeng is about the same age as Yao Qisheng, also 37 or [-] years old.It's not a big deal for him himself, he didn't even take the Juren exam at the beginning, he was directly from the Imperial College, and he was qualified to participate in the follow-up examination.

Moreover, Zhang Shipeng, the supervisor at the time, was even a "shadow supervisor", which belonged to the same type as Zhu Shuren's entry into Nanjing Guozijian - because his father was the former Minister of the Ministry of War and the former Governor of Zhejiang and Fujian, Zhang Guowei. Those who went to the south to serve as officials escaped unharmed.

Zhang Guowei used to be Shen Tingyang's boss, and he was a family friend when he was in Suzhou. Later, when Zhu Shuren advocated the Lijin reform of the Zhen Dynasty, Zhang Guowei, as the minister of Nanjing's household department, was also the main boosting ally.Later, after the establishment of the Nanjing court, Zhang Guowei also helped Zhu Shuren stabilize the situation in Zhejiang.

If Zhang Guowei himself is still alive, he should be over seventy by now.He didn't live that long, though, and died four years ago.

There are two sons left behind. The eldest son Zhang Shifeng passed the official examination at the beginning, and now he is the minister of the Ministry of Industry in the court.The second son, Zhang Shipeng, was a little bit disappointing and failed in many trials. When the Qing Dynasty was wiped out a few years ago, Enke was selected. Fortunately, he was promoted quickly and stayed in his hometown in Zhejiang to become the magistrate of Hangzhou.

There is no doubt that the brothers of the Zhang family continued to prosper because their father stood in line well, and they were reused by Zhu Shuren.

But this is not a problem, Zhu Shuren wants to be in power stably, slow down the Y chromosome of the old Zhu family, of course, he must reuse his loyal members in special times.

He also knows that the Four Books and Five Classics are of no use in themselves, they are just a screening tool to imprison people with lofty ideals.On the bright side, it is enough to not look ugly, and to convince the world's Confucian scholars to believe that this set of ascending channels is still useful. In fact, it doesn't matter.

After the initial communication between Zhang Shipeng and Yao Qisheng, he quickly raised a question: "I don't know why the prince pays special attention to our reform in Zhejiang this year? Do you think our side is easy to make mistakes?
The official asked himself that he was diligent in this aspect, and the registration and analysis of property were all implemented solidly, so it wouldn't be worse than Jiangxi's side. "

Yao Qisheng didn't put on airs, and said frankly: "The prince really didn't find any specific inappropriate things in your province, and he just encouraged you.

Last year, Yingtian Mansion punished them with minor punishments, but this year other prefectures in Nanzhili will definitely not have any problems.Moreover, Susongchang towns are all fertile plains, and there is no problem of dividing mountain counties into Ping counties. The situation is simple.

Although Jiangxi is mountainous, Jiujiang Prefecture and Nanchang Prefecture are located in the Poyang Lake and Ganjiang Plains, so there are not many complicated problems. Poor peasants can generally have paddy fields of ten acres or eight acres.

There are a few counties in the west of the two prefectures, a little more mountainous, and the land is not easy to concentrate, but those places are close to Wuchang, and Wuchang was the base of the prince before he started his family, so most of the people there were repeatedly beaten by the court.

From the looks of it, my lord, the scope of this year's pilot program is the most prone to problems, and it is your Hangzhou government.The three prefectures in Zhejiang participating in the pilot project and Jiaxing in Huzhou are all plains, and the land is easy to concentrate.

The west of Hangzhou Prefecture is stretched by mountains. It can be said that Hangzhou City, after passing the West Lake, is full of mountains to the west, with complex terrain and fragmented cultivated land.Even the tea farmers who grow tea on Longjing Mountain may not be able to scrape together [-] acres of mountain land each.

Therefore, the prince decided to focus on "encouraging the people to merge and integrate fields in a small area, squeeze out the population to change to work status, and the court to provide loan turnover to help the people transform" to focus on the Hangzhou government test. "

After Zhang Shipeng heard these words, he couldn't help being shocked: "I already know that the reason why the prince set the policy of 'Farm households with less than [-] mu of paddy fields in the plains shall be taxed according to [-] mu. The lower limit for mountain counties is halved'. The purpose is to encourage and induce ordinary people who have only a little land to give up their land and go to the city to work.

However, the prince would actually encourage land annexation?Since ancient times in all dynasties, land annexation has been a long-term hidden danger to the country. Has no one persuaded the prince? "

Although Zhang Shipeng was Zhu Shuren's confidant and old friend, he still felt that this matter was a bit unbelievable.

Mainly as a Chinese, after reading the history books from the beginning of the Han Dynasty, I know that as early as in the Shihuo Zhi of "Historical Records" and "Hanshu", all dynasties and dynasties have described a collapsed scene at the end of the dynasty as " The rich have fields connected with rice paddies, but the poor have no place to stand."

Even in the 21st century, there are still many people who just see the word "land annexation" and just start spraying it without reading it.

Of course Zhu Shuren would not make low-level mistakes, so what he allowed Yao Qisheng to do was completely different from what Zhang Shipeng thought.

Yao Qisheng also had an expression of admiration and complacency on his face, and couldn't help showing off: "Don't be surprised at Zhang Futai, what you think and what the prince thinks are actually not the same thing. How can the prince not know the disadvantages of land annexation?
Therefore, this year and the next two years, he hopes to implement a small-scale pilot program in Hangzhou Prefecture. It is not a real indiscriminate land merger, but just "allowing mutual land mergers between middle and lower poor farmers."

Soon there will be an official announcement from the imperial court, which will require that from this year to the next three years, all land transactions in Hangzhou Prefecture must be reported to the prefecture and county. Land transactions registered in the county and recorded in the government are all considered illegal and invalid.

On this basis, the prince will further request that the Hangzhou government freeze the channel for big households to ask the poor to buy land within three years, and prohibit such transactions.However, only middle and lower-middle farmers who own less than [-] mu of paddy fields and less than [-] mu of mountain fields per household are allowed to buy land from other lower-middle farmers.And after the purchase, the upper limit of owning fields shall not exceed [-] mu of paddy fields, or [-] mu of mountain fields.

What the prince wants is to merge poor peasants with each other, so that the number of peasant households will decrease, and the average competitiveness of each household will become stronger. The peasants who are squeezed out will switch to work and become workers.Instead of letting the big landlords also take the opportunity to sit big——

However, if the big landlords also want to buy land from other big landlords, merge and transfer each other, or if some landlords need to separate their families and change some of the branch population of the clan to work status, then the imperial court still supports it, but only before this level of transactions , to go to the county for approval first.Those who sell more than [-] mu of land must register with the magistrate's seal, and those who sell more than [-] mu of land must register with the magistrate's seal. "

Zhang Shipeng listened very carefully, and felt unbelievable after listening.

But it is normal for Zhu Shuren to think of this kind of "directed encouragement for mergers".Who made him a time traveler? The trick he thought of was actually similar to the "restriction on real estate purchases" in later generations.

Land annexation is not all bad, it is bad for big landlords to annex more and more middle and lower peasants.If the middle and lower peasants themselves merge with each other, some people will leave the market, and some people will become stronger, increasing their competitiveness against risks, then the society will only become more stable.

Of course, any purchase restrictions will definitely have a knock-on effect.For example, if the purchase of real estate in later generations is restricted, the house price will definitely be slightly lower than that of the same situation where there is no purchase restriction at all.

Because some competitive potential buyers are kept out of the trading market by administrative coercive orders, there are fewer buyers who can get off the market, and the prices offered by buyers will definitely be slightly lower, and the land will not be expensive.But anyway, it is the self-merger among the middle and lower peasants, and it can be regarded as the meat is rotten in the pot.

Zhang Shipeng thought for a long time before he came up with a drawback, or an unfeasible point at the implementation level: "But...the middle and lower peasants merge with each other, and the middle and lower peasants can't make much money, so what should they do? They want to buy There is no money.

And if there are poor people who have to sell their fields when they encounter disasters and diseases, they will not be able to sell them at a high price because there are no big landlords and buyers. Wouldn’t it be even worse? "

Only then did Yao Qisheng try to see it poorly: "So, actually, I discussed it with the prince last year, and I can use the young crop method of the former King Jinggong of the Song Dynasty in a new way, and learn from it.

As long as they are good citizens with good credit, even if they are poor, as long as they have no tricky records, they can apply for a "business loan" similar to young crop money from the imperial court. This kind of special loan is only lent to those who have three to ten acres of paddy fields at home. For civilian households, those who exceed the upper limit of property are not allowed to borrow.

The borrowed money should not be put directly into the hands of the people who borrowed as much as possible, but should be used directly to buy fields from other poor peasant neighbors, and merge the small fields that are not concentrated enough and inefficiently cultivated to facilitate large-scale farming. farming.

The imperial court can keep the interest rate very low, but the period for repaying the loan can be extended.In the end, it will take ten or twenty years to pay back a total price equivalent to four or five times the original land price, and it will be enough, just as a relief. "

Wang Anshi's young crop method, the interest rate is very high, and it can easily cost [-] to [-]% a year.And Wang Anshi himself thought it was very kind at the beginning, because in the Song Dynasty, the landlords directly lent usury loans to the farmers, and the interest was often doubled in a year.

The money can only be said to be an emergency, not a poor one. They have to borrow because they are forced to turn around, or they can’t afford the spring seeds. They hope that the value of the seeds will be doubled after the autumn harvest.

If Zhu Shuren wants to engage in operating credit for farmers, he must not be able to make a [-]% profit every year, which will directly increase the profit to heaven.Therefore, he can only pay more than [-]% of the interest at most, and let people repay it for ten years, and in the end he will have to pay several times the principal.

This is definitely several times higher than the mortgage interest for buying a house in later generations, but it is definitely an unprecedented benevolent government in the Ming Dynasty.The specific amount can also be adjusted in the follow-up implementation process-even the mortgage interest rate of future generations can be appropriately lowered according to the economic operation situation. It is regulated by the unit of year.

On the other hand, the imperial court imposed purchase restrictions, because the buyers were restricted, and those poor peasants who sold their land could not sell at a higher price. In fact, the transaction amount would be several percent lower than the actual value of the land.If you come and go again, it will be considered that both the buyer and the seller will lose less, and the matter will be over.

Zhang Shipeng pondered over and over again, and finally understood the feasibility of this unprecedented creative policy.He just sighed incredulously:

"My lord never fights uncertain battles. Since he dared to make such a determination, then he must have thought of how to guard against the tricks of the unscrupulous merchants who took advantage of Wang Jinggong's young crop money back then?"

"Of course I thought of it." Yao Qisheng and Youyou admitted proudly, and then described it a little more.

The specific content is similar to what he talked with Zhu Shuren last year, but it has been slightly improved and refined, so I won't repeat it.

Zhang Shipeng also chose to believe, no longer entangled, and prepared to implement it first, taking one step at a time.

He couldn't help looking up to the sky and sighing: "In order to solve the problem of poor farmland and weak disease resistance, the prince forced the poor to concentrate their fields and allocate the surplus population to work. It can be said that it took a lot of painstaking efforts."

Yao Qisheng: "Actually, the things we mentioned today are nothing. For this, the prince will spare no effort in all means. What he thinks about is at least a hundred years later. Far-sightedness is beyond the reach of human wisdom.

For example, before I came, I heard that the prince discussed a measure with the people from the Ministry of Punishment and the Ministry of Household Affairs, but I haven't dared to come up with it yet.It is said that in the future, the imperial court hopes to adopt a "reverse favor order" for the poor peasants:
Wasn't the Tweeting Order of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty just to divide the princes and let the princes and kings' fiefs be distributed to all their sons, and then the distribution became smaller and smaller, so that they would not threaten the court in the end?
And the reverse grace order that the prince wants to implement against the poor is to force the people not to be able to resist risks because the sons are getting more and more and the land is getting less and less. There are many sons and five sons, and the eldest father has 25 grandchildren before his death.Because of the fact that there are many people but few goods and wealth, and hard work and little support, people struggle, even though rewards are multiplied and punishments are multiplied, they will not avoid chaos'.

If this order is implemented, the imperial court will set restrictions on the method of farmers inheriting acres of land in the future. No matter how the peasants will distribute their inheritance after they die, they will not be allowed to divide and set up a separate land with an area of ​​less than ten acres of paddy fields or twenty acres of dry fields. .

In other words, if a farmer owns less than ten mu of paddy fields, he must concentrate the ten mu to one son for inheritance, and cannot split it among several brothers for inheritance.

Except for the son who inherited the property, the remaining sons must not get a share of the land——

Parents can leave them money, food, houses, or send them to study and learn crafts before they are alive, so that they can earn a living with a skill, but only poor farmers with less than ten mu of paddy fields should not be allowed to share the land equally among their sons.

The extra sons must be forced to be registered as workers or in the army or service.In this way, the land of poor farmers will not be diluted, and the ability to resist risks will become weaker and weaker from generation to generation. "

The reverse operation of the strong Tweet naturally means that the weak must inherit collectively, which is well understood.

After Zhang Shipeng listened, he was so shocked by this unconstrained idea that he was speechless.

He felt that this was too harmful to the Confucian tradition of "filial piety". Brothers should be humble and friendly. Even if the parents left little land, how could it be stipulated that the eldest brother monopolizes all the land?

Fortunately, it is still in the discussion stage and has not yet been implemented. If it is brought out now, the opposition will probably be even stronger.

The regent wants to fight against the Confucian ethics that have been in operation for 2000 years, and even the basic moral principles of filial piety. How much resistance is this?

"This method is too dangerous. Everyone has a heart to love their sons. Who can let their young sons be poor and weak." Zhang Shipeng couldn't help sighing.

Yao Qisheng also felt fascinated: "My lord's thoughts are far beyond what people can fathom. However, I heard that the lord has focused on chemical engineering and biology for the Academy of Sciences in the past two years. It seems that one of the projects is also related to this kind of future inheritance reform. .

The prince seems to be asking the Institute of Biology of the Academy of Sciences to preach more about how to avoid pregnancy by women and how to control as much as possible, and preach among the people.After the implementation of the new law in the future, the poor people who are sympathetic will be able to have fewer sons,

The common people who don't have enough land like this know well in their own minds, knowing that giving birth to more than two sons is harming their sons, and they can't support them if they can control each other.

There are some foreigners in the Western Regions, such as big cannibals, etc. The famous religion they believe in is very different from mine in China.They, too, grew up in a place of scarcity and barrenness, and feel that there should be restraint between husband and wife after the first male heir is born.

I, in the Central Plains, pay attention to having no offspring, so I can’t be so strict, but I should also preach that the poor have two sons, or one son and more daughters, and they should be restrained. This is also to prevent their fields from getting thinner and less, and they will not be able to handle some famines in the future. , had to sell all the land property as a tenant.

In addition to biological abstinence, the prince is now also ordering the artisans of the Institute of Chemistry to study 'rubber' to try to use processed rubber, or swim bladder, to help people who cannot abstain from controlling their children.Everything is to prevent the poor peasants from getting thinner and thinner.I really have never seen any ruler in the world who can continue to divide the land with such a worried person as the prince. "

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PS: The above is already [-] words, so I will explain a little bit.Last time, some readers kindly provided some year names, and I also wanted to use the high praises directly (in fact, the highest number of likes was only three to five. At that time, I saw that there was no interaction with my book).

But then I searched on Baidu and found that Gao Zan's "Datong" and "Datong" can't be used, because the ancients used it.Datong was used by Xiao Yan, Emperor Wu of Liang.

It is very troublesome to choose the year name in ancient times, it is to avoid the use of the predecessors, especially the year name of the king of decline is particularly unlucky.Zhao Kuangyin was used by the former king of Shu because of the title of "Qiande". He was so angry that he criticized Zhao Pu and praised Dou Yi Taogu, saying that "the prime minister needs scholars."

So in a fit of anger, I didn't specify what year name was changed at the time. Later, in the chronology, I wrote Xiaokang two years and three years in a low-key manner, but this is by no means a nonsense, because "Datong" and "Xiaokang" are the opposites in "Book of Rites". The description of the ideal society in the stage has its source, not a modern word, so don't talk about "Jianzheng", as there is really no source for Jianzheng.

In the Confucian definition of "Great Harmony", it means that "people should not only kiss their relatives, and their sons should be their sons", while "Xiaokang" means "everyone should kiss their relatives, and each son should be their sons".

Datong is to make the best use of people and things, and distribute according to needs.To be well-off is at least "to be wise and courageous, to be self-reliant, to be righteous, to test one's credibility, to write about one's faults, to benevolent in punishment, to show people's permanence." To translate it in vernacular, it still needs to rely on system construction.

To put it bluntly, Datong is the advanced stage of the Confucian ideal society, while Xiaokang is the primary stage.

The protagonist can't achieve Datong either. After all, he is developing the budding capital attention. In the final analysis, he still uses the legal system to make people self-interested, so keep a low profile and be well-off.

And it just so happened that the ancient emperors were very happy, and they didn't look down on Xiaokang. If they wanted to go up, they would advertise themselves as Datong in one step, so Xiaokang happened not to be used by the emperors of the previous 2000 years. (Even people like Yelu Deguang have the face to call themselves Datong)
It's better for the protagonist to be a little more modest, but he does what he says.We don't have the same knowledge as Yelv Deguang and his ilk.

(End of this chapter)